March 31: The main tunnel of the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project is going to witness a breakthrough within a month. Of the 13.3 km tunnel of this national pride project, only 790 m is left to be completed, according to Mitra Baral, the project chief.

The multi-billion-rupee project aims to provide irrigation facility to five drought-prone districts in Province No 2 and generate 31 megawatt of electricity.

A team comprising Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Shakti Bahadur Basnet, Secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Sushil Chandra Tiwari and Director General of Department of Hydropower and Irrigation Chandra Bahadur Oli among others made an on-site inspection of the project site at Kusumtar of Kamalamai municipality in Sindhuli district on Saturday.

Minister Basnet, following the on-site visit, assured that there will be no resource crunch for the project to complete on time. "This project is a special priority of the government. We make sure that there will not be any problems of resources in the project," the minister pledged.

Stating that the project had achieved satisfactory progress so far, Minister Basnet instructed all stakeholders to conclude the project within the stipulated time. Earlier on Friday, the team also inspected the dam of the project that is estimated to provide irrigation facility to 122,000 hectares of land in Rautahat, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi and Bara districts.

Project Chief Baral said that if there was no geographical complication in digging the remaining portion of the tunnel, the project will achieve breakthrough within a month.

A Chinese company China Overseas Engineering has been constructing the tunnel while an Indian Company Patel Engineering partnering with Nepal's Raman Group to build the dam of the project.

The project is expected to be completed within mid-October 2027. As a part of the project, 67 cubic metres of water per second would be diverted from the Sunkoshi River to the Bagmati River via Marin Khola of Sindhuli district. ----